A conservative watchdog group is demanding the Trump administration investigate one of the nation&#8217;s biggest satellite television provider over its promotion of DEI and other political activism.
Consumers’ Research sent a letter on Wednesday to the Justice Department and the Federal Communications Commission arguing that DISH has “entrenched discriminatory practices” that may violate President Donald Trump’s executive orders on DEI. The letter pointed to various employee trainings and initiatives that focused on race and gender. 
“Rather than focusing on consumers, DISH has instead promoted race- and gender-based ideologies in violation of President Trump’s executive orders aimed at eliminating divisive and discriminatory DEI programs in both the public and private sectors,” Consumers’ Research Executive Director Will Hild wrote in a letter obtained by The Daily Wire. 
Consumers’ Research launched a <a href="https://consumersresearch.org/woke-alert/woke-alert-dish-network/">campaign</a> in July to highlight some of DISH’s woke efforts. 
On a now-deleted <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20240721195539/https:/careers.dish.com/about/diversity-inclusion">webpage</a>, DISH said that it wanted to embed DEI into its recruiting efforts, data and analytics, learning and development, talent identification and development, and organizational processes and systems. 
“DISH is committed to embracing a diverse, equitable and inclusive workplace where every team member is empowered to realize their full potential. While there is still work to be done, our five-part strategy aims to improve diversity, equity and inclusion at all levels — especially systematic — in order to be a workplace representative of the communities we live, work and serve in,” an archived page of the webpage reads. 
Hild’s letter also pointed to an <a href="https://www.facebook.com/dishcareers/posts/2145362812209762">unconscious bias</a> training session hosted by DISH’s employee resource groups. This training focused on how companies “need bias interrupters” and taught that “being on a diverse &amp; inclusive team is being on a winning team.”
Employee resource groups hosted by DISH include identity-focused collectives like &#8220;Out at DISH,&#8221; &#8220;African American Network at DISH,&#8221; &#8220;DISH Women’s Impact Network,&#8221; and &#8220;Adelante con DISH.&#8221; Many of these groups have promoted political agendas. 
For example, Out at DISH <a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/DBAISaWuvx5/">promoted</a> the Trevor Project’s “Coming Out Handbook,” which promotes radical gender ideology to kids. That same group also celebrated “Transgender Day of Visibility,” <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:6915292412047233024/">urging</a> employees to “take some time to learn more about the transgender community and how you can be an ally.”
Hild’s letter also referenced previously-scrutinized donations from DISH founder Charlie Ergen, which came before the Biden Justice Department dismissed a $3.3 billion civil fraud lawsuit against the network. As the New York Post <a href="https://nypost.com/2024/03/22/us-news/doj-moved-to-dismiss-3-3b-fraud-suit-against-dish-after-chairman-charlie-ergen-donated-113k-to-biden/">reported</a>, the Justice Department moved to dismiss the suit in March 2024, just months after Ergen donated $113,000 to the Biden re-election effort.
A spokesman for Echostar, DISH’s owner, argued at the time that the fraud allegations were without merit and pointed out that Ergen regularly donated to members of both parties. 
“As a company subject to FCC oversight and benefiting from federal spectrum allocations, Consumers’ Research urges the DOJ and FCC to investigate DISH’s DEI initiatives for potential violations of President Trump’s executive orders and to assess whether the political activism of the co-founders has improperly influenced regulatory outcomes,” Hild wrote. 
The FCC has already opened up DEI-related investigations into broadcast companies, including Comcast and NBC Universal. FCC Chair Brendan Carr said that the promotion of DEI may be in violation of federal civil rights laws. 
Hild would like to see similar investigations into DISH. 
“Subjecting their employees to DEI training and especially their promotion of radical gender ideology to children is in violation of President Trump&#8217;s policies and DISH should be investigated immediately by the DOJ and FCC,” Hild told The Daily Wire. &#8220;DISH Network needs to be held accountable for turning its company into a vehicle for far-left activism. From DEI mandates to gender ideology and climate activism, it is clear the company has embedded woke politics into every part of its business.”

Dish Network Satellite television company logo seen

Trump Needs To Investigate DEI Push From DISH, Watchdog Insists

Department of Justice

Diversity Equity and Inclusion (DEI)

Trump Administration

Woke Culture

Federal Communications Commission Chairman Brendan Carr on Tuesday responded to the leftist uproar over CBS canceling “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert,&#8221; pointing out that the negative reactions to the program&#8217;s demise are one-sided.
&#8220;The partisan left’s ritualist wailing and gnashing of teeth over Colbert is quite revealing,” Carr wrote on X. “They’re acting like they’re losing a loyal DNC spokesperson that was entitled to an exemption from the laws of economics.” 
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
The partisan left’s ritualist wailing and gnashing of teeth over Colbert is quite revealing.
They’re acting like they’re losing a loyal DNC spokesperson that was entitled to an exemption from the laws of economics.
— Brendan Carr (@BrendanCarrFCC) <a href="https://twitter.com/BrendanCarrFCC/status/1947630093540724934?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">July 22, 2025</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
Many commenters on the social media platform agreed. 
“They ARE losing a loyal spokesperson. They don&#8217;t care about the economics, they care about the messaging,” one account <a href="https://x.com/JeffMarshalek/status/1947965661474414814">replied</a>.
“Socialists don’t understand economics,” another <a href="https://x.com/jackfarrington/status/1947652185497444580">wrote</a>.
“Their desperation is pathetic and (Trump Derangement Syndrome) is terminal,” a third commenter <a href="https://x.com/DogRightGirl/status/1947636188266877113">chimed in</a>.
CBS announced last week that it was canceling “The Late Show” after the upcoming season, which has inspired outsized reactions from the Left. The network described the move as a “purely financial decision.” A recent report stated that the program was losing $40 million annually. 
Colbert went off on an <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/go-f-yourself-colbert-unleashes-anti-trump-tirade-amid-report-his-show-loses-40m-annually">expletive-laced tirade</a> during his monologue Monday night, blasting President Donald Trump and CBS. Colbert mentioned how the network’s parent company, Paramount Global, paid Trump a $16 million settlement earlier this month after being accused of election interference. 
“People have been speculating about the timing of this decision from Paramount, and they’re pointing out that last Monday, just two days before my cancellation, I delivered a blistering monologue in which I showed the courage to have a mustache,” said Colbert. “When obviously CBS saw my upper lip and boom, canceled. Coincidence? Oh, I think not. This is worse than fascism. This is stashism.”
“They clarified that the cancellation was purely a financial decision. But how could it purely be a financial decision if ‘The Late Show’ is number one in ratings? A lot of folks are asking that question, mainly my staff’s parents and spouses,” Colbert went on. 
Next, he accused CBS insiders of leaking financial details to justify the cancellation.
“Over the weekend, somebody at CBS followed up their gracious press release with a gracious anonymous leak saying they pulled the plug on our show because of losses pegged between $40 million and $50 million a year. $40 million is a big number. I could see us losing $24 million, but where would Paramount have possibly spent the other $16 million? Oh, yeah,” he said, seemingly referencing the amount of the settlement.
Trump has since said that he anticipates an additional $20 million in advertising and public service announcements after new owners take control of Paramount.

Brendan Carr

FCC Chief Mocks Left’s Colbert Meltdown: It’s ‘Like They’re Losing A Loyal DNC Spokesperson’

FCC Chair Reacts To Leftist Outrage Over Colbert Cancellation: 'Quite Revealing'

Entertainment

Stephen Colbert

Television

Newly installed Federal Communications Commission Chairman Brendan Carr is weeding out diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts and leftist priorities at the agency, vowing to restore an &#8220;even-handed application of the law&#8221; with media companies.
Carr spoke to <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/podcasts/morning-wire" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Morning Wire</a> for a special weekend episode, telling Daily Wire Editor-in-Chief John Bickley that the FCC will seek to return to &#8220;fair and equal treatment.&#8221; So far, under Carr&#8217;s direction, the agency has launched investigations into Comcast and NBC for their DEI practices.
&#8220;Many on the left are warning that Trump is bullying media outlets and he&#8217;s forcing journalists to tone down their coverage of his administration through his actions. How do you see it?&#8221; Bickley asked Carr.
&#8220;I think we&#8217;re seeing an even-handed application of the law,&#8221; Carr said. &#8220;There&#8217;s a quote from Thomas Sowell that I&#8217;ll change a little bit, but, you know, whenever people have benefited from discriminatory government practices, even-handed treatment then itself, it feels like discrimination to them.&#8221;
<iframe style="width: 100%; max-width: 660px; overflow: hidden; border-radius: 10px;" src="https://embed.podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/federal-communication-course-correction-2-16-25/id1576594336?i=1000692730548" height="175" frameborder="0" sandbox="allow-forms allow-popups allow-same-origin allow-scripts allow-storage-access-by-user-activation allow-top-navigation-by-user-activation"></iframe> 
Carr, who has been an FCC commissioner for eight years, added that under the Biden administration, the agency gave special treatment to leftists, such as groups aligned with billionaire George Soros while revoking a deal with billionaire Trump supporter Elon Musk.
&#8220;We had this deal with Elon Musk where we were gonna provide high-speed internet to hundreds of thousands of rural Americans for pennies on the dollar. And that was abruptly revoked by the FCC. And what I said at the time was plainly political retribution against Elon Musk,&#8221; Carr said. &#8220;Or flash-forward to the other side of the coin, where a George Soros-aligned group sought to get special, streamlined, expedited treatment from the FCC to obtain 200 radio stations – and the FCC created a special unprecedented Soros shortcut.&#8221;
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&#8220;My view is everyone gets a fair shake at the FCC now, and we&#8217;re just going to call balls and strikes,&#8221; he added.
The new FCC chair also discussed his agency&#8217;s investigation into Comcast&#8217;s alleged &#8220;illegal DEI discrimination.&#8221; Carr told Morning Wire that President Trump is &#8220;leading the country away from this really dark period of this scourge,&#8221; adding that following Trump&#8217;s executive orders ending DEI in the federal government, the FCC has ended its promotion of the leftist policies.
&#8220;I gotta tell you, people would be shocked if they knew how much both money and time and resources their federal government was spending on DEI,&#8221; Carr said. &#8220;The FCC alone, which is roughly a 350 to 400 million [dollars] a year agency, we were spending millions of dollars promoting DEI. It was in our budget. We had it listed as our number two strategic priority, and we were just way off course in terms of core missions.&#8221;
&#8220;Again, we want equality, we want fairness, we want everyone in this country to have a fair shot, we want merit to rise to the top,&#8221; he continued. &#8220;And maybe there are things that people are doing under the term DEI that are totally appropriate, but that&#8217;s exactly what we&#8217;re going to get to the bottom of here.&#8221;

‘Even-Handed Application Of The Law’: New FCC Chair Promises To Root Out Leftist Priorities

Morning Wire

<a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/fcc" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Federal Communications Commission</a> Chair Brendan Carr ordered an investigation into Comcast’s diversity, equity, and inclusion policies, warning that other companies under FCC oversight could face similar scrutiny if found engaging in “invidious” discrimination.
Carr <a href="https://nypost.com/2025/02/12/business/fccs-brendan-carr-orders-probe-into-comcasts-dei-policies/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">informed</a> Comcast CEO Brian Roberts that the agency would examine whether the cable giant’s programs were in “violation of F.C.C. regulations and civil rights laws,” per the New York Post.
Carr told the Post, &#8220;Every single business that&#8217;s regulated by the FCC … I trust that they have now got the message that the time to end their invidious forms of DEI discrimination is now.&#8221;
A Comcast spokesperson responded to Carr’s letter, saying, &#8220;We have received an inquiry from the Federal Communications Commission and will be cooperating with the FCC to answer their questions. For decades, our company has been built on a foundation of integrity and respect for all of our employees and customers.&#8221;
The probe follows President Trump&#8217;s ban on such initiatives at federal agencies after taking office, with many private companies following suit.
Carr’s letter also highlighted that Comcast had multiple initiatives to evaluate, including “DEI days” and formal training sessions.
According to the notice, the agency selected Comcast because it “touches so many of our sectors,” being a top cable, wireless, and internet provider and broadcasting giant, owning NBCUniversal and Peacock.
Carr indicated the agency has “lots of different options on the table,” ranging from letters of inquiry to more severe enforcement measures, should companies such as Comcast not end discriminatory DEI practices.
“I have a very hard time seeing how a business is going to get FCC approval while maintaining invidious forms of discrimination,” Carr said.
He did not confirm whether all FCC regulations firms with forms of DEI policies will be subject to formal review. Still, he emphasized that companies under his jurisdiction should examine their policies closely.
Various household-name corporations have scaled back or revised their diversity-focused programming in recent months. Recently, both Google and Disney took steps to pause or trim back parts of their own DEI agendas, reflecting a shifting landscape for businesses under the Trump administration.

In this photo illustration, a Comcast Corporation logo seen

FCC Chair Launches Probe Into Comcast’s DEI Policies

Executive

U.S.

Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Chair Brendan Carr made it clear that he was not satisfied with the actions of <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/cbs-news" target="_blank" rel="noopener">CBS News</a> despite the fact that the network finally released the full, unedited transcript and uncut video from then Vice President Kamala Harris&#8217; interview with anchor Bill Whitaker.
Carr told Fox News Digital that CBS&#8217; <a href="https://www.foxnews.com/media/fcc-chair-calls-cbs-news-conduct-hard-explain-following-release-kamala-harris-interview-transcript?intcmp=tw_fnc" target="_blank" rel="noopener">conduct was called into question</a> in part because the network had been so forthcoming in releasing a similar transcript from an interview with Vice President JD Vance — but had stonewalled and delayed the release of the Harris interview for months.
&#8220;CBS&#8217;s conduct is hard to explain. On the one hand, CBS immediately released the unredacted transcript of a recent interview with Vice President Vance. Yet for months they refused to release the one with Vice President Harris,&#8221; he said.
Carr went on to explain that he intended to follow up on the possibility that CBS&#8217; obvious edits to the interview — which the network claimed were made for the sake of brevity and clarity — amounted to News Distortion.
&#8220;The FCC has now opened up a proceeding and is seeking public comment on the News Distortion complaint. Transparency here is important. The FCC’s review will continue, and we look forward to the public’s feedback,&#8221; he added.
During a different interview earlier in the week with Fox News anchor Dana Perino, Carr had explained that to rise to the level of News Distortion, the edit had to change the content in a way that would make it appear to say something different: &#8220;The policy says you can&#8217;t swap answers out to make it look like somebody said something entirely different.&#8221;
Late last week, it was reported that CBS News was considering settling the lawsuit filed by President Donald Trump shortly after the interview aired, a move that has been criticized by a few in the media space.
CNN anchor Jake Tapper said such a settlement would amount to &#8220;hoisting a white flag of surrender,&#8221; adding, &#8220;It would be the network of Edward R Murrow at the behest of its owners, saying, &#8216;we will not speak truth to power. We will acquiesce to power&#8217; at the expense of truth.'&#8221;
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
Jake Tapper, who has been adjudicated to be a malicious defamer, wags his finger and scolds CBS for thinking about settling Trump&#39;s lawsuit against them: &quot;For Paramount to settle this suit would be hoisting a white flag of surrender. It would be the network of Edward R Murrow at… <a href="https://t.co/1PvYWVug6k">pic.twitter.com/1PvYWVug6k</a>
&mdash; Nicholas Fondacaro (@NickFondacaro) <a href="https://twitter.com/NickFondacaro/status/1887632014888563150?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">February 6, 2025</a></blockquote>
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Mediaite founder Dan Abrams <a href="https://www.mediaite.com/tv/dan-abrams-buries-cbs-for-handing-over-kamala-harris-transcript-to-fcc-one-of-the-more-cowardly-moves-in-recent-news-history/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">criticized CBS</a> for releasing the transcript after the FCC demanded it, calling that &#8220;one of the more cowardly moves&#8221; made by a media outlet.

FCC Officials Testify Before House Energy And Commerce Committee

FCC Chair Is Not Done With CBS Despite Kamala Transcript Release: ‘Conduct Is Hard To Explain’

FCC Chair Is Not Done With CBS Despite Kamala Transcript Release: 'Conduct Is Hard To Explain'

CBS News

Donald Trump

JD Vance

Kamala Harris

Lawsuit

Media

Politics

New Federal Communications Commission Chair Brendan Carr announced Tuesday that he had eliminated diversity, equity, and inclusion programs from the agency in accordance with President <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/donald-trump" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Donald Trump’</a>s directive to remove DEI practices from the federal government. 
Carr, who was tapped by Trump to lead the agency on Monday, announced that he had slashed several DEI initiatives started by the Biden administration. These programs included removing DEI from the FCC’s Strategic Plan and budget requests. 
“Promoting invidious forms of discrimination runs contrary to the Communications Act and deprives Americans of their rights to fair and equal treatment under the law. It also represents a wasteful expenditure of taxpayer resources,” Carr said. “Nonetheless, the FCC joined other private and public sector institutions in promoting discriminatory DEl policies during the Biden Administration. The FCC did so by embedding DEl in its strategic priorities, budget requests, advisory groups, rulemaking proceedings, and many other components of its official work.”
<a href="https://store.dailywire.com/"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignnone wp-image-862665 size-large" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/01/INAUG_MERCHBANNER-6-2-1024x391.png" alt="" width="1024" height="391" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/01/INAUG_MERCHBANNER-6-2-1024x391.png 1024w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/01/INAUG_MERCHBANNER-6-2-300x115.png 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/01/INAUG_MERCHBANNER-6-2-768x293.png 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/01/INAUG_MERCHBANNER-6-2-1536x587.png 1536w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/01/INAUG_MERCHBANNER-6-2-2048x782.png 2048w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" /></a>
Carr’s directive will eliminate the FCC’s DEI advisory group and 2022 equity action plan and remove the promotion of DEI as a component in the FCC’s economic reports and annual performance plans. 
The move comes after Trump issued an <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/01/ending-radical-and-wasteful-government-dei-programs-and-preferencing/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">executive order</a> on Monday to end all government DEI programs and orders.
“The Biden Administration forced illegal and immoral discrimination programs, going by the name ‘diversity, equity, and inclusion’ (DEI), into virtually all aspects of the Federal Government, in areas ranging from airline safety to the military,” the order said
The charge will be led by the director of the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), the attorney general, and the director of the Office of Personnel Management (OPM). They will meet with agency and cabinet heads in 60 days to discuss what changes have been made. 
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This will mean cutting &#8220;environmental justice” positions or offices, equity action plans, and any DEI officer positions instituted under Biden. 
In a separate executive order, Trump <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/trump-ends-equity-in-federal-hiring-promises-to-only-focus-on-merit" target="_blank" rel="noopener">said</a> that the government would no longer consider goals like “equity” when hiring but prioritize based on skills, experience, and patriotism.
“Federal hiring should not be based on impermissible factors, such as one’s commitment to illegal racial discrimination under the guise of &#8216;equity,&#8217; or one’s commitment to the invented concept of ‘gender identity’ over sex,” the order adds.  “Inserting such factors into the hiring process subverts the will of the People, puts critical government functions at risk, and risks losing the best-qualified candidates.&#8221;

Federal Agency Eliminates All DEI Programs After Trump’s Executive Order

Joe Biden

Social Issues

A federal appeals court on Thursday struck down the Biden administration-backed “<a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/net-neutrality" target="_blank" rel="noopener">net neutrality</a>” regulations implemented last year by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC). 
The Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals <a href="https://www.opn.ca6.uscourts.gov/opinions.pdf/25a0002p-06.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">ruled</a> 3-0 against the FCC’s recent order that said Broadband Internet Service Providers must follow net neutrality rules because they are a &#8220;telecommunications service.” Net neutrality rules block broadband providers from varying speeds or blocking connections to third-party websites
In a 26-page decision, Judge Richard Griffin wrote that the FCC “lacks the statutory authority to impose its desired net-neutrality policies” because broadband providers offer an “information service” and are not a telecommunications service under federal law. 
Griffin said that because broadband providers are an information service they are not “not subject to common-carrier regulations.”
“For the reasons that follow, we hold that Broadband Internet Service Providers offer an information service and that mobile broadband is a private mobile service,” he wrote. “Therefore, the FCC exceeded its statutory authority by issuing the Safeguarding Order.”
The court&#8217;s decision came after the FCC reinstated “net neutrality” policies in April 2024, which several broadband providers challenged. 
In response, Democratic FCC Chair Jessica Rosenworcel called for Congress to implement net neutrality regulations. 
“Consumers across the country have told us again and again that they want an internet that is fast, open, and fair,” Rosenworcel said. “With this decision it is clear that Congress now needs to heed their call, take up the charge for net neutrality, and put open internet principles in federal law.”
FCC Commissioner Brendan Carr, whom President-elect Donald Trump has selected as the next chair of the commission, praised the court&#8217;s decision, calling it a &#8220;win&#8221; for the country. He said the regulations were part of the Biden administration’s work “to expand the government’s control over every feature of the Internet ecosystem.”
“I am pleased that the appellate court invalidated President Biden’s Internet power grab by striking down these unlawful Title II regulations,” he <a href="https://docs.fcc.gov/public/attachments/DOC-408580A1.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">said</a>. “But the work to unwind the Biden Administration’s regulatory overreach will continue. I welcome the chance to advance a policy agenda that will deliver great results for the American people.”

US-CRIME-ATTACK

Federal Court Blocks Biden Administration’s ‘Net Neutrality’ Rules

Biden Administration

Courts

Internet

Net Neutrality

President-elect Donald Trump declared on Sunday that his new administration would be up and running within hours of his inauguration, and his incoming Federal Communications Commission is apparently taking that directive seriously.
Brendan Carr, who currently serves as the FCC commissioner, <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2024/12/23/media/fcc-brendan-carr-bob-iger-abc-letter/index.html">fired off a note</a> to Disney CEO Bob Iger, and indicated that he planned to hold news networks — like the Disney-owned ABC News — accountable during his tenure as chairman.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
Incoming FCC chairman sends a letter to the CEO of Disney (owner of ABC) telling him “Americans no longer trust the national news media to report fully, accurately, and fairly.” <a href="https://t.co/9J5yZJgkbT">https://t.co/9J5yZJgkbT</a> <a href="https://t.co/WzzV7fZx1e">https://t.co/WzzV7fZx1e</a>
&mdash; Steve Herman (@W7VOA) <a href="https://twitter.com/W7VOA/status/1871323621949423651?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">December 23, 2024</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
In the letter, Carr noted that the American people have largely lost trust in the national media — although most, according to polling data, still have much more positive views of their local media outlets.
“Dear Mr. Iger, Americans no longer trust the national news media to report fully, accurately, and fairly,” Carr’s letter began, before pivoting to address ABC’s recent $15 million settlement — and an additional $1 million in attorney fees — with Trump.
“ABC’s own conduct has certainly contributed to this erosion in public trust. For instance, ABC News recently agreed to pay $15 million to President Trump’s future presidential foundation and museum and an additional $1 million in attorney fees to settle a defamation case,” Carr wrote.
The defamation case sprung from a March broadcast of the network’s flagship Sunday morning show, “This Week,” when veteran anchor George Stephanopoulos said on a number of occasions that Trump had been “found liable for rape” in the E. Jean Carroll case.
Stephanopoulos, a former Democratic strategist, had been warned against using the word “rape” prior to the broadcast, but did it anyway.
Carr went on to suggest that by prioritizing Disney’s paid streaming services over content that might be made available to the local, and more trusted, affiliates, the company was only deepening the public’s mistrust.
“The fact that a massive trust divide has emerged between local news outlets and national programmers like ABC only increases the importance of retransmission consent revenues remaining available for local broadcast TV stations to invest in their local news operations and content that serves their communities,” he added.

CPAC 2024 in Maryland

Trump’s Incoming FCC Chair Fires Off Warning Letter To Disney CEO

ABC News

Disney

President-elect Donald Trump&#8217;s nominee to lead to the FCC, Brendan Carr, said during an interview over the weekend that he was focused on ending censorship on social media.
Carr made the remarks during a Sunday interview on Fox News while talking about Trump&#8217;s transition team.
&#8220;First of all, I think President Trump and his transition team is really just knocking it out of the park with these picks,&#8221; he said. &#8220;They&#8217;re putting a broad variety of people that represent President Trump&#8217;s unique coalition. Washington, D.C., doesn&#8217;t like it. And I think that means that he&#8217;s doing exactly right.&#8221;
He said that his first goal is to get in with Trump and make sure he understands fully the agenda that Trump wants him to implement.
&#8220;Combatting tech censorship is going to be one of the top priorities for me,&#8221; he said. &#8220;We need to restore Americans&#8217; right to free speech. And you mentioned Facebook and other companies. They have been part of a censorship cartel that have worked with advertisers. They have worked with government officials to censor the free speech rights of everyday Americans.&#8221;
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&#8220;That&#8217;s got to end, because censorship isn&#8217;t just about stopping words. It&#8217;s about stopping ideas,&#8221; he continued. &#8220;America is a country of founders, of people that have pushed boundaries, pushed frontiers. They have innovated. When you silence speech, you silence ideas.&#8221;
He said that major tech leaders have already shown willingness to reverse previously held positions, including Jeff Bezos and Mark Zuckerberg.
In a post on X highlighting his interview, Carr said that censorship was &#8220;unAmerican.&#8221;
&#8220;America is country of founders, of trailblazers that push boundaries, of innovators,&#8221; he said. &#8220;And that is why America’s scrappy entrepreneurs feel so much hope with President Trump.&#8221;
&#8220;They know that the wet blanket of government control is lifting, and President Trump is going to unleash economic opportunity and a great American comeback,&#8221; he continued. &#8220;Smashing the censorship cartel is part and parcel of getting our economy going again.&#8221;
WATCH:
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
Incoming FCC Chairman <a href="https://twitter.com/BrendanCarrFCC?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@BrendanCarrFCC</a>: “Combatting tech censorship is going to be one of the top priorities for me.” <a href="https://t.co/Oz8n6qOdVX">pic.twitter.com/Oz8n6qOdVX</a>
— Trump War Room (@TrumpWarRoom) <a href="https://twitter.com/TrumpWarRoom/status/1863245647094100228?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">December 1, 2024</a></blockquote>

Trump FCC Nominee Brendan Carr: ‘Smashing The Censorship Cartel’ A Top Priority

Censorship

NEW YORK — Donald Trump’s Federal Communications Commission has signaled <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/fcc-commissioner-takes-on-4-big-tech-companies-for-censorship-cartel" target="_blank" rel="noopener">massive legal liability</a> for tech firms who censor news content, but at a conference for an entire industry dedicated to doing just that, there was little to no introspection on display.
Hundreds gathered for a <a href="https://614group.com/news/brand-safety-summit-announces-its-newest-members-and-partners" target="_blank" rel="noopener">“Brand Safety Summit”</a> in New York just before the election last month, where they strategized on how to keep advertising dollars from going to news outlets that promote “misinformation.” The conference was sponsored by major tech firms such as TikTok, Meta, Google, and Snap.
Absent from discussion was any reflection on how they had gotten it horrifically wrong, censoring true stories like the New York Post’s Hunter Biden laptop story before the 2020 election and dismissing as a conspiracy theory the idea that COVID leaked from a Chinese lab. In a Q&amp;A portion of a panel, The Daily Wire asked what lessons had been learned from those examples. But the panelists did not express particular concern, and mostly shrugged off their responsibility onto third parties like <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/congress-to-probe-media-rating-firm-newsguard-for-possible-taxpayer-funded-censorship" target="_blank" rel="noopener">NewsGuard</a>. Andrew Serby of &#8220;brand suitability&#8221; technology company Zefr said, “We do it based on verified fact-checks from third parties, right? So the fact checks for academic institutions or companies that have fact checkers.” He declined to go deeper on the question after the panel.
Susan Zemlyakova of TikTok said virtually the same thing.
“We work with a number of fact-checking organizations to help basically uphold our disinformation policies, or specifically harmful misinformation policies,&#8221; Zemlyakova said. &#8220;So through these partners.. we&#8217;re able to identify, able to identify accurately, and remove.”
Khurrum Malik, chief marketing officer of a “brand safety” firm called Integral Ad Science, boasted on stage that his firm used third-party raters including the Global Disinformation Index (GDI) to determine what news was “safe.” GDI has taken government money and called mainstream outlets like the New York Post, the Washington Examiner, Reason Magazine, and The Daily Wire risky. Like many firms in the space, GDI is based abroad where the First Amendment does not apply. (The Daily Wire is <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/daily-wire-and-the-federalist-sue-biden-state-department-over-censorship-effort" target="_blank" rel="noopener">suing</a> the State Department over its relationship with NewsGuard and GDI, alleging that government-backed suppression of media content violates the First Amendment.)
After his speech, Malik struggled to defend the basics of his business to The Daily Wire. He said “it’s actually a really hard problem” to determine if news articles are misinformation, saying that “it’s very early days” in the industry.
He said his company’s solution was to &#8220;rely on third parties.” Asked how the third parties could do something that his own company could not reliably do because of the extreme difficulty, he said it relied on multiple firms. He said his company was very transparent, before exchanging nervous glances with a colleague and cutting the conversation short.
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The &#8220;brand safety&#8221; industry officials studiously avoided the elephant in the room: That the Global Alliance for Responsible Media, better known as GARM, the industry&#8217;s largest player, spectacularly <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/leftist-censorship-cartel-garm-disbands-following-musk-lawsuit-ben-shapiro-testimony" target="_blank" rel="noopener">collapsed</a> this year following lawsuits alleging that they violated antitrust law and facilitated illegal boycotts. A congressional investigation into GARM obtained internal emails in which a “brand safety” executive for advertising firm GroupM, Joe Barone — above an email signature with a rainbow and the phrase “Black Lives Matter” — wrote: “Fyi we have Daily Wire on our Global High Risk exclusion list, categorized as Conspiracy Theories. Another batch of emails showed a GroupM executive say that he &#8220;hated&#8221; Breitbart&#8217;s &#8220;ideology and bulls&#8212;,&#8221; and laid out how his group used misinformation rules as a pretext to target them.
The Brand Safety Summit was run by 614 Group, which quoted from Barone glowingly on its website (614 has since deleted the reference). Rob Rasko, the 614 Group’s leader, refused to talk about GARM with The Daily Wire. When The Daily Wire asked a GroupM official about it, Rasko came over to intervene, earning a wink from the GroupM official.
Rasko also punted on issues like GDI, saying that he didn&#8217;t refer people to GDI and just &#8220;run[s] a conference&#8221; and that &#8220;it&#8217;s a complicated conversation&#8221;&#8211;though Rasko organized a conference about best practices that included a speaker extolling GDI, and the two-day conference did not get into the complicated questions that arise from GARM&#8217;s legal woes and GDI&#8217;s false categorization of major news outlets.
After GARM&#8217;s collapse, Rasko&#8217;s group worked with Dentsu, a foreign public relations firm that was a founding member of GARM, to set up the &#8220;Dentsu Coalition.&#8221; A press release <a href="https://614group.com/news/dentsu-and-the-614-group-spearhead-a-new-coalition-to-enhance-investment-in-news">quoted Rasko</a> saying it involved “leveraging the collective power of the [ad] industry’s foremost players&#8221; to boost &#8220;credible news&#8221;- — a dynamic that sounded just like what the recently shuttered GARM was doing. Dentsu eventually threw 614 under the bus, <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/latest-ad-industry-censorship-effort-is-over-before-it-began-big-win">saying</a>, “It is clear, with the benefit of hindsight, that some of the language of the press release (drafted by The 614 Group) was hyperbolic.&#8221;
Rasko disagreed, saying, &#8220;I don&#8217;t interpret it that way.&#8221; 614 has since <a href="https://614group.com/news/dentsu-and-the-614-group-spearhead-a-new-coalition-to-enhance-investment-in-news" target="_blank" rel="noopener">deleted</a> the press release.
The sole introspection at the Brand Safety Summit came from its opening speaker, Gary Vaynerchuk, who has a reputation for speaking plainly — perhaps to Rasko’s chagrin. Vaynerchuk profanely rejected many of the industry’s foundational precepts and made reference to his parents growing up in the Soviet Union.
On a panel, Rasko asked him what he would do if he was in charge of brand safety. Vaynerchuk suggested it wasn’t platforms’ role to ensure that everyone felt safe.
“All I hear is people complain about what they&#8217;re scared of. If you&#8217;re so scared of your child being on TikTok, you should delete TikTok off the f**king phone, because you’re their parent. And so I think we need to be very careful and take a step back on all this safety stuff.”
“The institutions of society have done a very good job of making people feel helpless and feel like somebody else is going to do it for us,” he said.
“I think it’s crazy to be a human being and have the audacity to think that every other human being in our country should see the world exactly how we see it, like we’ve gotten to this place of entitlement&#8230;. you have to understand that humility is the great balance to it… I think we’re struggling with that collectively, as an industry,” he added.
“I think accountability is a very attractive word heading into 2025.”

Brand Safety Summit / Daily Wire

The Censorship Industry Gathered For A Convention. They’ve Learned Nothing

Social Media Censorship

President-elect Donald Trump announced on Sunday that he has selected Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Commissioner Brendan Carr to be the chairman of the FCC.
&#8220;Commissioner Carr currently serves as the senior Republican on the FCC,&#8221; Trump said. &#8220;Before that, he was the FCC’s General Counsel. I first nominated Commissioner Carr to the FCC in 2017, and he has been confirmed unanimously by the United States Senate three times.&#8221;
&#8220;His current term runs through 2029 and, because of his great work, I will now be designating him as permanent Chairman,&#8221; he added.
Carr responded to the appointment with a statement on X: &#8220;Thank you, President Trump!&#8221;
&#8220;I am humbled and honored to serve as Chairman of the FCC,&#8221; he said. &#8220;Now we get to work.&#8221;
Former FCC Chairman Ajit Pai, to whom Carr served as an advisor at the FCC, applauded Trump&#8217;s pick.
&#8220;Congratulations to my friend and former @FCC colleague @BrendanCarrFCC!&#8221; Pai said in a statement.
&#8220;He was a brilliant advisor and General Counsel and has been a superb Commissioner, and I’m confident he will be a great FCC Chairman,&#8221; he added. &#8220;Best wishes leading the agency!&#8221;
Carr earned his J.D. Magna Cum Laude from the Catholic University of America’s Columbus School of Law, the Trump transition team said.
&#8220;Earlier in his career, Commissioner Carr worked as an attorney specializing in Appellate, Litigation, and Regulatory matters,&#8221; the statement said. &#8220;Previously, Commissioner Carr clerked on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit for Judge Dennis Shedd.&#8221;
Carr announced in a statement late last week that he was taking on four major Big Tech companies for their involvement in an alleged &#8220;censorship cartel&#8221; that he says targeted Americans for promoting narratives that the companies did not agree with.
Carr sent letters to Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella, and Apple CEO Tim Cook requesting that they provide the FCC with information pertaining to NewsGuard — a left-wing organization that has played a role in targeting conservatives online.
&#8220;Over the past few years, Americans have lived through an unprecedented surge in censorship,&#8221; Carr said in his letter. &#8220;Your companies played significant roles in this improper conduct. Big Tech companies silenced Americans for doing nothing more than exercising their First Amendment rights.&#8221;
Carr said that the companies worked with so-called &#8220;media monitors&#8221; to censor speech involving politics, science, and religion.
The companies worked to &#8220;defund, demonetize, and otherwise put out of business news outlets and organizations that dared to deviate from an approved narrative,&#8221; Carr said.
Carr said that various congressional investigations and news reports showed the companies operated this &#8220;censorship cartel&#8221; with the help of Biden-Harris administration.
The letter said:
<blockquote>The relevant conduct extended from removing or blocking social media posts to labeling whole websites or apps as &#8216;untrustworthy&#8217; or &#8216;high-risk&#8217; in an apparent effort to suppress their information and viewpoints, including through efforts to delist them, lower their rankings, or harm their profitability. This censorship cartel is an affront to Americans&#8217; constitutional freedoms and must be completely dismantled. Americans must be able to reclaim their right to free speech. Indeed, our democracy depends on freedom of expression.</blockquote>
Carr said that the incoming Trump administration and Republican-controlled Congress would be taking a close look at the companies&#8217; actions.
He requested information about their work with NewsGuard, a for-profit company that bills itself as the Internet&#8217;s arbiter of truth by &#8220;rat[ing] the credibility of news and information outlets and tell[ing] readers and advertisers which outlets they can trust.&#8221;
He noted that congressional investigations have found that NewsGuard selects &#8220;winner and losers in the news media space&#8221; by using its partnerships with advertising agencies to censor targeted outlets.
The letter said that NewsGuard&#8217;s own track record was a serious problem, for example rating &#8220;official propaganda from the Communist Party of China as more credible than American publications.&#8221;
NewsGuard also has on its advisory board at least one person who &#8220;signed the now infamous October 2020 letter from former intelligence community officials that flamed the false claim that the Hunter Biden laptop story was Russian disinformation — a letter that itself fueled a wave of censorship.&#8221;
Carr said that the companies had until December 10 to provide information to the FCC about all of their products and services that use or enable their customers to use NewsGuard.

Trump Put Brendan Carr On The FCC, Now He’s Promoting Him To Chairman

Trump Put Brendan Carr On The FCC, Now He's Promoting Him To Chairman

FCC Commissioner Brendan Carr is taking on four major Big Tech companies for their involvement in an alleged &#8220;censorship cartel&#8221; that he says targeted Americans for promoting narratives that the companies did not agree with.
Carr sent letters to Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella, and Apple CEO Tim Cook requesting that they provide the FCC with information pertaining to NewsGuard — a left-wing organization that has played a role in targeting conservatives online.
&#8220;Over the past few years, Americans have lived through an unprecedented surge in censorship,&#8221; Carr said in his letter. &#8220;Your companies played significant roles in this improper conduct. Big Tech companies silenced Americans for doing nothing more than exercising their First Amendment rights.&#8221;
Carr said that the companies worked with so-called &#8220;media monitors&#8221; to censor speech involving politics, science, and religion.
The companies worked to &#8220;defund, demonetize, and otherwise put out of business news outlets and organizations that dared to deviate from an approved narrative,&#8221; Carr said.
Carr said that various congressional investigations and news reports showed the companies operated this &#8220;censorship cartel&#8221; with the help of Biden-Harris administration.
The letter said:
<blockquote>The relevant conduct extended from removing or blocking social media posts to labeling whole websites or apps as &#8216;untrustworthy&#8217; or &#8216;high-risk&#8217; in an apparent effort to suppress their information and viewpoints, including through efforts to delist them, lower their rankings, or harm their profitability. This censorship cartel is an affront to Americans&#8217; constitutional freedoms and must be completely dismantled. Americans must be able to reclaim their right to free speech. Indeed, our democracy depends on freedom of expression.</blockquote>
Carr said that the incoming Trump administration and Republican-controlled Congress would be taking a close look at the companies&#8217; actions.
He requested information about their work with NewsGuard, a for-profit company that bills itself as the Internet&#8217;s arbiter of truth by &#8220;rat[ing] the credibility of news and information outlets and tell[ing] readers and advertisers which outlets they can trust.&#8221;
He noted that congressional investigations have found that NewsGuard selects &#8220;winner and losers in the news media space&#8221; by using its partnerships with advertising agencies to censor targeted outlets.
The letter said that NewsGuard&#8217;s own track record was a serious problem, for example rating &#8220;official propaganda from the Communist Party of China as more credible than American publications.&#8221;
NewsGuard also has on its advisory board at least one person who &#8220;signed the now infamous October 2020 letter from former intelligence community officials that flamed the false claim that the Hunter Biden laptop story was Russian disinformation — a letter that itself fueled a wave of censorship.&#8221;
Carr said that the companies had until December 10 to provide information to the FCC about all of their products and services that use or enable their customers to use NewsGuard.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
Facebook, Google, Apple, Microsoft &amp; others have played central roles in the censorship cartel.
The Orwellian named NewsGuard along with “fact checking” groups &amp; ad agencies helped enforce one-sided narratives.
The censorship cartel must be dismantled. <a href="https://t.co/Xf0sEYOUfv">pic.twitter.com/Xf0sEYOUfv</a>
— Brendan Carr (@BrendanCarrFCC) <a href="https://twitter.com/BrendanCarrFCC/status/1857419658812440927?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">November 15, 2024</a></blockquote>

Connecting America: Oversight of the FCC

FCC Commissioner Takes On 4 Big Tech Companies For ‘Censorship Cartel’

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